3 Important Traits of Successful Pastors

Let me start off by saying, I have an incredible amount of
respect for those in the ministry.

If you’re a pastor who is trying your best, you’re well on
your way to being successful.

I’m a bit nervous to use the term successful because
everyone has their own definition of what success looks like.

For the purpose of this post, I’m defining successful
pastors as those who have a congregation who is willing to follow their lead.

Successful pastors are able to get things done because they
have the support of their congregation.

If you’ve been trying to convince your church to go away
from Sunday school and towards small groups and they aren’t budging, then for
the purpose of this post, you’d be defined as unsuccessful.

You may be a great person, incredible speaker, and well
liked, but if the congregation isn’t willing to follow your lead, then you’ve
not been successful.

So, how can we change that?

What are the traits that you need in order for people to be
willing to follow you?

Show them you care.

John Maxwell says, “You have to
touch a heart, before you ask for a hand.” This is so true. If you want people
to respect and follow you, they have to feel loved by you. This doesn’t
necessarily mean that you need to visit everyone in the hospital or go to every
funeral, but you need to make sure that people know that they are noticed and
that they matter. Some pastors make it all about themselves and want to make
themselves look important. Successful pastors make others see that they are the
ones who are important.

Exude
enough passion to inspire.

You don’t want to just motivate
people; you want to inspire them. Motivated people will quickly lose their
motivation. People who are inspired learn to live it out. What inspires people?
Being humble and not prideful. Being engaged and not disinterested. Being
stable and not chaotic. Being confident and not timid. And make sure what you
say you value lines up with the way you live.

Empower
others to use their gifts.

You can’t do everything, and you
shouldn’t. God has placed people in your church for a reason. Be willing to
hand off ministry to others. And don’t just give people a to do list, actually
give them the authority to make decisions. Learn how to trust people. The best
way to do that is to just trust them. Everyone has to start somewhere. Focus on
what only you can do, and delegate the rest.

If you’ll develop these three traits, you’ll find that
people will be much more willing to follow you. And when people are willing to
follow you, you can better accomplish the vision God has given you for your
church.